A filling apparatus having a mouthpiece with at least one filling duct whose outlet mouth is closable by a closure member is known.
A metering mechanism is known which provides a measured amount of product. The closure members in these devices are constructed in different ways. Independently of their structure these closure members have the purpose of forming the lower cutoff for the mouthpiece, under which containers, e.g. packing cups, are moved past cyclically on a conveyor belt of a filling unit. As soon as a container comes to rest, the closure member opens the outlet mouth of the mouthpiece so that the product can enter the container found under it through the mouthpiece. When the filling process is finished, the outlet mouth is again closed and the conveyor belt advances another cycle until the mouthpiece is above the next empty container.
Filling machines or units are known for pasty or lumpy products in which the mouthpiece is equipped with a rotary stopcock as the closure member. The rotary stopcock is rotatably mounted in the mouthpiece and it has a passage approximately the size of the filling duct of the mouthpiece. The passage can be brought into alignment with the filling duct, so that the filled product can flow into the container. If the rotary stopcock is rotated about 90 degrees, the closure member is closed. These rotary stopcock mouthpieces are quite costly, since for exact sealing an exact mounting must be made of the rotary stopcock in the mouthpiece.
For filling very hard products there are mouthpieces with the so-called "wire-cutters". "Wire cutters" comprise a wire and/or a wire bow, which can be moved past and beneath the outlet mouth and thus cut away a strand of product. These wire cutters have the considerable disadvantage that they can only cut off the product flow, but they cannot relieve the pressure on the remaining product. Apart from that, these wire cutters are frequently damaged and must be replaced.